Turbulence

Prologue

Eda looked through the window as a car made a turn, and to her eyes appeared the familiar sight of the high concrete fence of the military base. The place that felt more like home than home itself. If the many apartments, where she lived in through the years with her mother or alone, could be even called that way.

She felt a small pang in her heart when the car passed an old bar at the beach where her father took her to have her first beer with him when she turned eighteen. It was the same as she remembered, not changing even for a bit since she had her first faint memories of playing on that beach with the children of her father's friends. 

It looked like time had frozen in this place, even if Eda knew that nothing was the same now when he was no longer there, and she was coming home years too late.

"Base to Lieutenant Yildiz. Base to Eda, I repeat." A female voice broke her out of her deep thoughts, and she looked to the front seats at her childhood friends, but from now on, also coworkers. 

"Are you sleeping there?" A black-haired man, four years older than Eda, looked over his shoulder after he stopped in front of a gate to the military base. "You're so quiet I started to suspect you were switched at the airport and we got the wrong one."

"Give her some break, Ferit." Ceren, a tall blonde who for a brief time was with Eda in the same class in kindergarten when they were two, punched him in the arm. "I wonder how cheerful you would be after over twelve hours long flight."

"As fresh as a daisy and ready to party. As always after one of my twenty-four hours shifts." Ferit rolled his eyes, driving through the gate, and added with a mean smile, looking at Eda through the front view mirror. "But now, I will have more time as Eda is taking all my borning obligations. Finally, someone to fill those stupid papers. You have no idea how many documents I had to produce every day for pilots, so they could show off during flights."

"It's called medical administrative duties." She made a face at her friend, and he chuckled.

"As you are so smart and already know everything." He continued in a mocking tone, stopping the car under a long white building with two stores, which was blocking the view of the rest of the facilities and the sea. "You won't be surprised that you are starting right away, so I could take my afternoon off."

"I didn't know you were such a jerk." Ceren teased, jumping out of the car and going to the trunk, followed by Eda and Ferit. "This is how you greet your old friend?"

"You can sit with her if this outrages you so much." The man smirked, taking two suitcases, and the blonde helped Eda with the last one.

"No, thank you, I'm not a doctor, and I'm not into looking at the naked butt of any of our pilots." She shuddered and turned to Eda. "Did they give you your room's number on your enlistment contract?"

Eda took a piece of paper from her purse and searched for the needed information. "Room 21 in Building A."

"You've got pilots' section? What is with them? Are we out of the rooms?" Ceren cocked her brows but then added with a shrug. "Neyse, I'm in building B and doctors too. It doesn't really matter. This place is not too big anyway, so everybody is at each other's necks all the time. It's really hard to avoid somebody here if you don't want to look at their annoying faces."

"I know." Eda smiled slightly, remembering the days of her training she spent here. It felt like a big bash, not a military base. 

"What did you put into this one? Rocks?" Ferit groaned, dragging Eda's suitcases on the stairs leading to the main entry.

"My books." She grinned, passed her friend, and turned toward a small desk, smiling at the doorman, who greeted her warmly and gave her a key.

"You don't need them here. Buy a Kindle." Ferit grumbled as they passed the hall and turned to a narrow corridor with the rooms. "And I'm serious with your today's shift. You have a patient waiting for you in less than half an hour."